


Seven Minutes in Heaven

by VileVenom



Category: Book of Life (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, House Party, Kissing, M/M, Party Games, Tumblr Prompt, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-25 20:03:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2634485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ceata88: What about an accidental joanolo kiss?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this AU. I think I might call it the Houseparty!AU, and perhaps add more to it later

The parties at the Mondragon house had always been legendary. With no parents around, and an aunt who was rarely home, Joaquin Mondragon was the person to see if you wanted to have a house party. And this one was no different.

Illegally obtained alcohol flowed freely into the cups of the underage attendees, while closed doors prevented prying eyes from catching sight of the unsavory acts held within. Music beat through the house, vibrating through the floors and rattling the pictures on the walls. The only saving grace to the neighborhood from the noise of rowdy teenagers was just how far apart each estate was.

And that was where Manolo Sanchez, music nerd extraordinaire, found himself. He wasn’t exactly what one would call the most popular boy in high school. Actually, that was a kindness. Manolo was so far down the food chain, he was surprised he had even garnered an invite to the party he found himself nursing a beer at. Of course, that probably had more to do with his best friend, Maria Posada, who dragged him to most of the parties she was invited to, being the student body president, along with being the captain of the debate team, as well as an on again, off again cheerleader. Maria had connections, and knew nearly everyone. Manolo was sure that if they hadn’t been childhood friends, he wouldn’t be a blip on her radar.

He sighed as he swirled his drink around in its red plastic cup, shrugging as he downed the rest of it in one go.

"Nice, dude!" Someone shouted, before Manolo found another cup in his hand.

~

Half an hour later saw Manolo staggering down the upstairs hallways in hopes of finding a bathroom, and perhaps some water. He’d tried the kitchen first, but found the sink had been filled with ice and stuffed with miscellaneous bottles of booze. The fridge had been no better, filled as it was with bottles of sugary drinks and beer. He felt woozy and fuzzy from the amount of beer and other strange fruity drinks he’d drunk without realization, having simply downed what kept being handed to him or poured into his cup. In retrospect, a very poor and stupid decision on his part.

He grunted as he ran into someone in the hallway, blinking blurrily as the person held his shoulders to steady him.

"Manolo!" a familiar voice giggled, a soft hand patting at his cheek.

"Maria?" Manolo squinted to focus, a smile spreading across his face, "Maria! I-I," he frowned, finding the world tilting slightly. He placed a hand on the hall wall to steady himself. "I think I drunk too much."

Maria laughed, patting his cheek once more, before her smaller hand was in his, tugging him along. “Seems like you did,” she hummed, leading him down the hallway, “But that’s okay. You’re more likely to play our game this way.”

"Game?" Manolo echoed as he was tugged into a bedroom with five other people inside.

"I found an eighth!" Maria declared to the room, shoving Manolo towards the bed, where he sat down heavily, his head spinning.

"Good. He’s already in the closet. Everyone draw! Highest heart card goes first," someone else said, and Manolo quickly found himself with a playing card in hand. He frowned down at the smiling Queen he held, his brain only becoming more confused by the turn of events.

"Looks like Manolo goes first," Maria chimed from beside him-when did she get there?

Someone laughed loudly, and then Manolo was being tugged up from his seat and shoved towards the bedroom closet. He turned to protest as he was shoved face first into a rack of clothing hung up in the closet, only to be greeted by the door slamming in his face. Darkness easily engulfed the small space, and Manolo suddenly wondered if this was all a cruel prank being played on him.

He jumped when a hand suddenly landed on his waist, a shriek he would never admit to escaping his throat. A laugh followed his noise of surprise, before he was being spun around and greeted by a sparkling pair of eyes and a grin he could barely make out in the dark.

"Thought they’d scare me off by sending a guy in first, huh?" the other said, Manolo slowly realizing he recognized that voice. It was a voice he often heard over the PA system at school, declaring this or that recent sports victory made by the schools varsity teams. Joaquin Mondragon himself. The captain of every sports team he could feasibly be on, and the gracious host of the party Manolo wasn’t even sure he wanted to be at anymore.

"Wh-what?" Manolo stammered, before a pair of lips were pressed against his and he was being pushed back against the wall through the hanging clothes. He made a squeaking noise in surprise, his hands flailing uselessly at his sides for a moment, before clutching to Joaquin’s shirt and melting into the, admittedly, amazing kiss he was being given.

He let out a short whine as Joaquin pulled away, letting the other teen’s shirt slip from his fingers. He hiccuped and licked his lips, staring through the dark at the other, who was watching him back intently.

"Why am I being kissed in a closet?" was all Manolo’s alcohol addled brain could think to come up with, before his footing slipped and he fell into a heap, several articles of clothing landing atop him.

Joaquin’s jovial laughter and light streaming in from the open closet door greeted him once he freed himself from the fallen clothes, a dark blush on his cheeks.

"C’mon, Manny. Up you get," the captain hummed as he helped Manolo back to his feet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning and very little actual interaction between the boys.

The sun was the bane of Manolo’s existence as he was rather unceremoniously woken by it in the morning, cursing under his breath as it fell across his eyelids. He grunted and made to roll over to escape the light, only to find himself unable to shift very far. He grunted quietly as he squinted his protesting eyes open to, assumedly, untangled himself from the blankets he’s undoubtably wrapped himself up in during the night.

However, the thing-or rather, things, keeping him warm were not blankets. No; on his side where the accursed light was coming from, none other than Joaquin Mondragon himself had his arms wrapped around Manolo’s middle, while on his other side Maria was cuddled up next to him with her head on his shoulder.

Confusion wracked his tired brain for a moment, before the night before came back to him. Or, at least, some of it. After being accosted by Joaquin in the closet, everything began to get a little fuzzy as he was fed more alcohol by the new group he’d found himself surrounded by. The most he could really recall at that point were Maria’s infectious giggles and a warm arm wrapped around his shoulders.

As he continued to try and piece together exactly what he’d done the night before, his sleeping companions began to wake, Maria rolling away from him with a grumble to stretch her limbs, while Joaquin gave him a squeeze an nuzzled in closer.

"Mmm, stop thinking so loud," Joaquin grumbled into his arm as Maria returned her head to Manolo’s shoulder.

"Morning, Manolo. How’s your head?" Maria asked softy, reaching up to poke him in the cheek with a grin.

Manolo let out a short series of disgruntled, sleepy sounds before speaking, “You are an evil temptress, Maria. You know I never drink that much. Papa will have my head when I get home with a hangover.”

Maria simply laughed, tapping him once on the forehead, much to his chagrin, before settling down next to him once more. Joaquin, meanwhile, had begun to snore softly into Manolo’s shirt sleeve.

"But the real question here," Manolo hissed to his friend, "is why the sports star of the school is cuddled up next to me like a kitten? Maria, what happened last night?"

"Well, we’re all still dressed, so apparently nothing so lascivious that you have to freak out, Manolo," she chuckled, tipping her head to look up at Manolo as she spoke, "We were supposed to be playing seven minutes in heaven, but Joaquin decided it was a bad idea after you fell over in the closet. So, we played truth or dare instead. You were really too drunk to play, though, so we just sat you on the bed. I guess Joaquin thought you were funny, because you kept trying to play anyway every time someone asked me. Eventually we figured out that if you had someone to snuggle up to you’d stop, so Joaquin volunteered to be your teddy bear."

"He did what? Oh, god. I’m going to be the laughing stock of the school come tomorrow," Manolo whined, shifting to throw his arm over his face dramatically, only to remember they were both currently pinned down by the people at his sides.

"Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Manolo," Maria hummed, reaching across his chest to gently ruffle Joaquin’s hair, "there are plenty of pictures of Joaquin treating you more like a teddy bear than the other way around. It’ll blow over in a day or so."

"I hope you’re right, Maria," Manolo sighed, glancing down at the sports captain at his side.

~

Manolo’s father did, indeed, scold him when he finally got home, but for not calling to say he would be out all night, rather than for being hung over. As he stated, ‘I remember being a teenager too, Manolo. Hanging out with your friends is all well and good on the weekend, but that doesn’t mean you need to make me worry!’

After an apology and a promise to call next time he’d be gone for so long, Manolo sat himself in his room with bottles of Gatorade and aspirin for the rest of the day, with the blinds shut and praying that Maria was right. His high school social life was already pathetic enough, he didn’t need to add ‘snugly drunk who cuddled the football captain’ to his already vast list of apparent character flaws.

However, when Monday finally rolled around and Manolo stepped through the dreaded front doors to the school, instead of the quiet jeers and snickers behind lifted hands that he had expected, he was greeted by something completely out of left field. Cheerful ‘hello’s and the odd ‘sup bro?’ were called to him a he moved through the halls to his locker, increasing amounts of bewilderment showing on his face.

"Morning, sunshine. How’s your head doing?"

"Maria!" Manolo jumped as Maria stepped up next to him as he shoved his backpack into his locker, turning to the girl with a half panicked expression, "don’t do that!"

"Woah. Usually you have some sort of weird sixth sense about people behind you. What’s up, Manolo?" Maria inquired, a look of concern on her face.

"I-ugh," Manolo sighed, grabbing the books he needed and slamming his locker shut, "Sorry. I don’t know. Why is everyone acting so…so friendly today?"

Maria snorted into her hand, arching an eyebrow at Manolo. “As opposed to what, exactly?”

"Ignoring my existence."

"Ah," realization dawned on Maria and she nodded quickly, "you can blame Joaquin for that. After the pictures from his party started circulating, he pretty much shut everyone down by saying you were pretty comfy to sleep on, and that you two are apparently good friends now?" She smirked, "Congrats on your sudden bump up the social food chain, my friend."

"Oh god," Manolo grunted, rubbing his hands over his face, "whyyyy?"

"Hey!" Maria smacked him not so gently in the arm, "you could’ve ended up with a piss poor rep and harassment instead of people thinking you’re in with Mondragon and subsequently thinking you must be a pretty cool guy. So stop whining and go say thanks to Joaquin next time you see him. People being nicer to you is better than being a social pariah, is it not?"

Manolo sighed and rubbed at his arm where he’d been hit as the two began to head down the hallway towards their respective classes, “I suppose you have a point.”

~

"Hey, Manny!"

Manolo lifted his head with a grin, his fingers stilling on the frets of his guitar as he looked towards the door to the music room.

"Hey, Pepe. What’s up?"

The Rodriguez brothers were the oddest set of triplets in the entire school. Well, the only set, really. While the youngest, Pepe, was a burly mountain of a teen, his ‘older’ brothers were shorter and more compact the more minutes they had on one another. They were all in Manolo’s extra curricular music classes, and had somewhat adopted Manolo as their fourth brother in junior year.

"Oh, not much, Sanchez," Pepe laughed, "just hearing all about how you’ve joined the upper echelon."

"You’ll still talk to us, right?" one of the other brothers piped up, flopping into the chair next to Manolo.

Manolo sighed, shaking his head a little as he began to slide his fingers over the frets of his guitar again. “I have not joined the, as you put it, ‘upper echelon’. Joaquin was just nice enough to not have the whole school turn against me after the party at his place this weekend. That’s all.”

"Mhmm. If you say so, Manny…"

"Manolo!"

Manolo jerked his head up at the shout of his name, his guitar letting out an unhappy sound as he plucked a string too hard. Joaquin was standing in the doorway to the classroom.

"Don’t forget us, Manny!" Pepe teased as Manolo stood from his seat, a quick glare from Manolo sending all three brothers into a fit of laughter.

"Hey, Joaquin. Um…what’s up?" Manolo asked, stepping out into the hallway an shutting the classroom door behind him to try and drown out the raucous laughter from inside.

"Maria said I’d find you here," Joaquin grinned widely, the beginnings of a mustache on his upper lip moving with the action. Manolo could vaguely recall the scratchy feel of it against his face.

"Did she?" he returned, clearing his throat as the intrusive thought flitted through his mind, "Well, you found me. What can I do for you?"

He took a short step back as Joaquin produced a slightly crumpled poster from the back pocket of his jeans, unrolling it and thrusting it in Manolo’s direction. “The football team is having a fund raiser this Friday. We still need entertainment to draw people to it. Maria mentioned you play guitar and are a bit of a showman, so I thought I might interest you in playing? It’d really help us out.”

Manolo looked over the poster, a slight frown on his lips. “Don’t you normally get the marching band or something to play for you guys?”

"Usually, but they’re attending a band competition that day and won’t be back in time. Besides, I figured a change in pace would be a good thing. Might draw more people than usual, you know? What do you say?" Joaquin lowered the poster slightly, peering at Manolo while wiggling both his eyebrows and sad excuse for a mustache at him.

The snorted laugh that left Manolo was completely unintentional, and he quickly covered his mouth, clearing his throat to try (in vain) to cover the sound.

"Ah, I suppose I can’t really refuse, can I?" he finally sighed, gingerly taking the abused poster from Joaquin.

"Nah, man. You can always say no. Definitely no pressure. But the whole team is counting on this fundraiser for our travel money for our season this year? And our entertainment is one of our biggest draws? But, seriously, no pressure!" Joaquin stated with a wide grin, shoving his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans while rocking back and forth slightly on the balls of his feet.

Manolo slowly lifted his gaze from the poster to arch a skeptical brow at Joaquin. “Yeah, totally no pressure,” he snorted.

Joaquin simply laughed in response, waving a hand at Manolo. “I’m only kidding! The school’s jazz ensemble already offered to do a showcase, if you don’t want to. I just thought I’d give you first dibs.”

"I-Really? That’s-that’s really nice of you," Manolo said, utter surprise on his face.

"Yeah, I can occasionally shed my asshole jock persona to be a nice guy," Joaquin hummed with a wry smile, earning a choked sound from Manolo.

"No! I didn’t mean-ugh," Manolo grunted rubbing at his face quickly, "I mean, thank you. For this. And for the thing with the pictures from this weekend. You didn’t have to, and I just…really appreciate it. Honestly."

A slow smile curled Joaquin’s lips, before he shrugged and waved off Manolo’s thanks. “It’s no big. Repay me by doing the show, yeah?”

Manolo offered the other teen a smile of his own, shrugging his own shoulders a little. “I suppose I can do that.”


End file.
